Life After Death: We Can Survive/Issue 3
Devon sat on the steps of the large, wooden deck, staring out past the fence and into the dense forest that lay behind it. The trees stood still--not a branch blowing in the wind, not a bird chirping and hopping throughout. There were no distant voices, no cars driving past. The world was silent. Devon slightly nodded his head, took a deep breath, and rose to his feet. He reached behind him and wrapped his hand around the wooden handle of the shovel that had been resting against the house wall, and walked to the end of the yard. He stopped right before the fence, lifted the shovel, and slammed the blade into the earth. Devon scooped up a pile of dirt and grass, throwing it to the side before doing it all again. And again. And again. He kept digging until he had a hole at least a foot deep. He set the blade of the shovel on the ground, rubbed his sweaty forehead with the collar of his shirt, and looked up at the bright white circle in the sky beating down on him. He stared at it for a moment, and then continued to dig. After finishing the grave, Devon walked into the back door of the house and into the kitchen. He walked to his left, and stopped in front of Judy’s body. He shuddered, and then bent down to grab her, but forgot about the bike lock which held her in place. He let go and paused for a moment, before walking out of the kitchen and into the living room. He went to the right and walked down the small flight of stairs into the garage, where he searched through drawer after drawer. Eventually, in the bottom drawer of a red tool box, he found what he was looking for; a hatchet. Devon went back into the kitchen and leaned down by Judy’s body again. He wrapped his hand around the wooden post the bike lock was attached to, pulled back, and swung the hatchet into it. It only took two hits for it to snap, and Devon pulled the lock up and over it. He put the hatchet on the counter, and paused. Taking a deep breath, he bent back down and began to pick up his aunt as he began to tear up again. He had to turn his head away, partially because of his sadness, and also partially because of the smell of her skin beginning to decay. He reluctantly carried her outside, and barely made it to the steps before he had to put her back on the ground. Devon keeled over and began retching over the edge of the porch. After he gagged for the last time, he waited for a few seconds until he was sure it was over. Then, he spun around, grabbed Judy’s body once again, and marched his way over to the grave he dug. He practically dropped her in as he fell to his knees, gagging once again. Once he managed to recollect himself, he got up and began to shovel the dirt over her body. ---- Leslie was still laying on the couch, playing with her thumbs, but was no longer crying. It had been about half an hour since they discovered their aunt, and she was drained of tears. She went to put her hands in her shirt pockets when she felt something inside. She grabbed the object, and pulled it out. Opening her hand, she saw the purple flower from the campground sitting in it, now mostly wilted and crumbly. Leslie began to trace her fingers around it when she heard the back door shut and Devon walked into the room. “What’s that?” he asked, curious. “A flower,” she replied solemnly. “Well no shit it’s a flower, but where’d you get it?” “Maybe you should have asked that then...and I got it last night...right before I saw that old man die.” There was silence between the two for a moment. “I’m going out,” Devon said abruptly. “I don’t care if you come with or stay, but make up your mind now.” “Where are you going?” she quietly asked after several seconds of silence. “To get some things from the apartment. Whatever’s happening out there...it’s not going to stop. At least not anytime soon. With...with Judy gone...we’re free to use this place. It’s a hell of a lot better than that dump of an apartment. Plus, if she’s right...and the bites do make you turn into one of them...we’re safer here, where we’re not near anyone else...So. Staying or going?” “I don’t know. Staying, I guess. But don’t you think that’s kind of stupid? With these...dead things walking around everywhere? How do you know you can survive?” “I’ll be fine. You saw how slow that old guy came at us; now that I know what I’m dealing with, I think I can handle myself if I run into any more of them. Plus, I have this,” Devon held up the hatchet. “Anyway, keep the doors locked. Don’t answer for anyone, understood?” “Yeah…” “Good. I’ll see you in a little bit. Stay safe...I love you.” “I love you too.” With that, Devon locked the handle of the front door that had still not been shut, and closed it behind him as he left. Leslie continued tracing her fingers around the flower as she heard Devon’s car start and drive off. She was alone. People were dying and coming back to life as cannibalistic monsters and she was alone. Leslie continued to sit there for a few minutes, before hesitantly rolling her legs off the couch and onto the floor. She stood up and walked into the kitchen, where she saw the bloody mess and broken post Devon left behind. She sorrowfully sighed. “Well, if we’re gonna live here…” she mumbled to herself as she searched the drawers for a cloth. After finding one, she ran it under the tap, and began slowly scrubbing the blood off the floor. When she was finished, she threw the cloth in the sink, threw the wooden post in the trash, and walked out the back door. There she saw the pile of dirt and the grave Devon made for Judy. Leslie walked back inside and pulled the wooden post out of the garbage, went back outside, walked to the grave, and jammed it in the ground. She looked back through the hard, scouring the yard for a piece of wood to use. She saw nothing at first, but then she stared at the deck railing, realizing she could use one of its posts. Leslie grabbed the shovel Devon left leaning against the back fence and walked over to the deck. She went around the back, where a rows horizontal wooden posts created a wall, and began to hit one. It took her quite a few hits, and she was exhausted from swinging the heavy shovel, but she kept hitting. Eventually she broke the piece, snapping it completely off the wall, and went around and onto the deck. She placed the shovel up against the outside wall and went inside. She searched through drawer after drawer, but she didn’t find what she needed. Leslie ran down the staircase in the living room, down into the garage, where she found a box of nails sitting on top of a cabinet. She opened the top drawer, where she found several hammers. She picked the smallest, and went back outside. Pulling the piece of wood she had placed in the ground out of it and putting it on the ground, Leslie layed the one she had just broken down horizontally to make a cross and began to hit the nail into them. When she was done, she jammed the cross back into the ground, and went inside with the hammer. ---- Devon sped down the road towards the inner city. The oncoming lane was backed up, likely because of people evacuating the city. There were no signs of the dead, but Devon kept his eyes peeled just in case. The car pulled into the run-down apartment complex and Devon hopped out. He bolted inside and up to his apartment, nearly dropping his keys as he tried pulling them out. He unlocked his door and ran inside, leaving the keys in the lock and the door open. He ran into his room and pulled out two empty duffel bags from his closet, and began packing them with clothes, pillows, and blankets. He filled one completely and the other one half-way by the time he was done, and then went into Leslie’s room. Devon searched her closet for a bag, but only found a small backpack. He began to stuff her clothes into it, but quickly ran out of room, and began to put more into the second duffel bag. However, that ran out of room quickly, as well. Devon pulled her stuff out and took out some of his shirts, replacing them with hers. He filled it up, and zipped up all three bags, taking them into the kitchen. Then, Devon pulled out some plastic bags from under the sink and began rooting through cupboard, throwing as many canned and packaged goods as he could in them, which wasn’t a lot. He put the last can in a bag and then ran into the bathroom with another bag, putting all their toiletries inside of it. When he was finished, he began to grab the bags and leave, but then he remembered something. He ran back into Leslie’s room and grabbed the shirts he had left there, threw them in with the food and toiletries, and left the apartment, but not without a struggle. ---- Leslie laid on the couch once again, fiddling with the hammer. It had been hours since Devon left, and the sun now began to set. “He’s dead…” she muttered under her breath. “He’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead…” She began to tear up, and placed the hammer on the coffee table beside her. She turned and shoved her face into the couch cushion, and began crying. Leslie opened her eyes and the room was pitch black. She leaped off the couch and looked around, not being able to see anything; not even her own body. She took a few steps, before tripping over something. She looked back and saw it. One of the dead. It was holding her leg and reaching out to grab her. She screamed but no noise came out. She couldn’t crawl away. It kept dragging her in, and suddenly, it began to speak. “Leslie...Leslie...Leslie…” Leslie awoke to the sound of someone banging at the door. It was night time now, and the only light in the room came from the street lights outside. “Leslie! Leslie!” she heard coming from the door, and then more knocking. She began to freak out, and threw her hands on the coffee table, moving them around to try to find the hammer. Eventually, she found it, grabbed it, and slowly walked to the door. “Leslie!” the voice yelled again and the knocking once again continued. She approached it, and raised the hammer. She unlocked it slowly and then yanked the door open, and began swinging the hammer forward but she stopped herself before she could hit the figure. Devon was standing in front of her, his arms full of bags. “What the hell are you doing?” he asked. “I thought someone...was at the door…” she said happily but monotonously. “Well...I was.” “Someone else, dumbass.” “Well...wait. Why did you open the door? I thought I told you not to. I-” “I’m sorry!” she said as her eyes teared up, dropping the hammer on the ground. “Okay, sh. Don’t make so much noise. Come on, help me with these.” Devon passed Leslie her backpack and two of the white bags, and walked inside. He placed the bags he was still holding on the ground and shut the door. “Why are you crying?” he asked. “You took so long…” she responded, nearly in tears. “I thought you...I thought…” “Hey, it’s okay. I’m here, aren’t I? There’s no need to cry.” “I was so scared…” Leslie said as a tear streamed down her cheek. Devon bent down and pulled her in for a hug. “It’s okay...just...stop crying, alright?” Leslie nodded in response. ---- A few more hours had passed, and the two sat around a fireplace in the living room. The fire inside was big and bright, lighting up the room just enough so that they can see each other. “I saw those things on my way back…” Devon stated. “The whole road was backed up and they started coming at us...about a dozen of ‘em. People started freaking out...abandoning their cars...driving off the side of the road...crashing into things. I’m lucky there weren’t as many people going into the city as there were leaving, or I’d’ve been fucked...I was sure there were gonna be cops on me the second I moved into the other lane, but I guess they were too busy fighting the dead." There was a brief silence. "We need to keep doing this," Devon continued. "Lighting fires...even if it means we chop down the whole forest out back. Using lights will draw too much attention to us now that those…'things' are out there, roaming around. We’ll need to board up the windows, too.” “We can use the back deck,” Leslie added. “I saw that. That was smart. But you’re right, that will work. We can protect this place...protect ourselves. We can wait this thing out…'we can survive'.” Credits * * * (Corpse) Deaths *None Trivia *Last appearance of Judy Brandt. (Corpse) *The title of the volume, We Can Survive, is said by Devon in the very end of the issue.